Month: October 2009

By siliconindia news bureau Wednesday,28 October 2009, 15:14 hrs Comment(275) Print Forward New Delhi: A retired Indian engineer, Chewang Norphel, 76, has built 12 new glaciers already and is racing to create five more before he dies, and by then he hopes to train enough new 'icemen' to continue the work he is doing to save the world's 'third icecap' from being transformed into rivers, reports Telegraph. His race against time is shared by Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, who called on the region's Himalayan nations, including China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, to constitute a united front to tackle glacial melting. The Himalayan glaciers, including Kashmir's Siachen glacier, feed the region's most important rivers, as they irrigate farm lands in Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh and throughout the Indian…

The 87-year-old Raja Valiyathampuran of Kodungallur in Central Kerala is a descendant of King Cheraman Perumal, the first Indian to embrace Islam in the early 7th century. Talking to him is like talking with history. In the following interview taken by A U Asif in Ernakulam, he dwells in detail upon his great early ancestor and the oldest mosque (above) of the sub-continent. He also asks North Indians to come to Kerala and see how people of different religions are living here for centuries in an atmosphere of harmony, fraternity and peace. How do you take your great great grandfather Cheraman Perumal? Cheraman Perumal was not only a king and my ancestor, but the first Indian to come into the fold of Islam. He was actually the person who gifted…

Submitted by admin3 on 28 October 2009 - 9:59pm. Crime/TerrorismIndian Muslim By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net, On the first anniversary of Batla House encounter, two young Azamgarh human rights activists -- from two different religions – recall the post-encounter incidents in their district. Neither Batla nor post-Batla incidents were accidents, rather the results of well-thought out politically motivated conspiracy hatched out years ago, Rajiv Yadav and Tariq Shafique tell Mumtaz Alam Falahi of TwoCircles.net Was post-Batla incidents in Azamgarh were planned or just accident? Rajiv Yadav: It was not an accident. It was a well-thought out politically motivated conspiracy hatched and execution of which began a year ago – coincidentally a year before the Lok Sabha elections. The post-Batla situation in Azamgarh and eastern UP was used by certain political…

Submitted by admin on 18 November 2008 - 9:14pm. A special TwoCircles.net series on Azamgarh In recent month, Azamgarh has seen many journalists; and the world has seen many reports, coverage, and opinions on Azamgarh and its connection with terrorism. Mumtaz Alam Falahi of TwoCircles.net visited Azamgarh to let the area and its residents speak for themselves. In this special series on Azamgarh you will hear Hindus and Muslims, Young and Old, Students and Intellectuals speak their mind. We are thankful to Kaleem Kawaja of Washington DC for sponsoring this series. Thanks to those in and around Azamgarh who let us speak to them and helped us in this series. Stories: Shadow of fear:This MBA youth from Azamgarh fearing returning to DelhiSanjarpur still living in fear, hasn't lost hopeA conspiracy…

In the summer of 1995, two years after being designated a United Nations Safe Area, the Bosnian town of Srebrenica became the scene of the worst massacre in the Bosnian war.This is an account of the critical days leading up to the killings.6 - 8 July 1995: Bosnian Serb forces had laid siege to the Srebrenica enclave, where tens of thousands of civilians had taken refuge from earlier Serb offensives in north-eastern Bosnia. Survivors from Srebrenica fled to Muslim-held territory They were under the protection of about 600 lightly armed Dutch infantry forces. Fuel was running out and no fresh food had been brought into the enclave since May. Serb forces began shelling Srebrenica. Bosnian Muslim fighters in the town asked for the return of weapons they had surrendered to…

Submitted by admin on 27 October 2009 - 9:11am. ArticlesFeaturesIndian Muslim By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net New Delhi: If you are a stranger and airdropped in this locality, I am sure you won’t even imagine that you are in the National Capital of India. You will be more surprised when told that you are a few kilometers from the Parliament House and Rashtrapati Bhawan and at equal distance from the Delhi State Assembly House. You are in Kacchi Khajuri, a Muslim-dominated colony in North-East Delhi. The government is spending over Rs 800 crore on infrastructure for Commonwealth Games 2010, just a few kilometres from here, but this locality has been waiting for road and drinking water for over a quarter century. Kacchi Khajuri is a predominantly Muslim locality in New…

By Ahmed Janabi Erdogan said Turks supported his decision to cancel military exercises with Israel [REUTERS]Since the Israeli war on Gaza last January, Turkey's role in Middle Eastern politics has become significantly more prominenft. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan'sJustice and Development (AK) Party took office in 2002, it pledged thatit would not forsake its historic, religious and cultural bonds withother Muslim countries. During the Gaza conflict, theparty made good on its promise. Turkey's government did not hesitate tovoice its displeasure at Israel's military actions, which it said weretargeting the civilian population of Gaza. Last week, the Turkish government demonstrated its loyalties again, banning Israeli warplanes from participating in an international military air exercise. The Anatolia Eagle exercise has been held since 2001 under the auspices of a Turkish-Israeli military agreement signed in 1996. The war-game usuallyinvolves Turkish, Israeli and US troops, and has been seen by Israel asa golden opportunity…

The war left about 1,400 Palestinians dead and prompted a UN-led investigation [File: EPA] Richard Goldstone, the jurist who authored a UN report accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity during its war on Gaza, has challenged the US to justify its claims that his findings are flawed and biased. Goldstone told Al Jazeera on Thursday that he had not heard from the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, about the flaws Washington claims to have identified in the report. "I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they have identified are. I would be happy to respond to them, if and when I know what they are," Goldstone said."The Obama administration joined our recommendation calling for full and good-faith investigations, both…

Amnesty said the water situation in the Gaza Strip has reached a "crisis point" Israelis denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water whileallowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupiedWest Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said."Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms inIsraeli settlements... stand in stark contrast next to Palestinianvillages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic waterneeds," the group said in a report released on Tuesday. Amnestysaid between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank ruralcommunities have no access to running water, while taps in other areasoften run dry."Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of theshared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank",Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, said. Israel'sdaily water consumption per capita is four times…

Ahmadinejad, left, thanked Erdogan, right, for his support on Iran's nuclear programme [EPA MahmoudAhmadinejad, Iran's president, has said that he "appreciates" thesupport shown by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, overTehran's nuclear programme.Erdogan, who arrived in Tehran forbilateral talks on Tuesday, has accused Western nations of hypocrisy incriticising Iran's uranium enrichment programme while remaining silenton Israel, which is believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal. Ahmadinejadtold Erdogan: "When an illicit regime possesses nuclear arms, one cannot talk about depriving other nations from the peaceful nuclearprogramme."Your clear stance towards the Zionist regime had a positive effectin the world, especially the Islamic world, and I am sure that everyonewas satisfied," he said, according to the Iranian presidential website 'Peaceful' programmeErdoganhad told journalists travelling with him to Iran that the country'snuclear programme, which Western nations say could be a cover forbuilding…